Post by Brian on Aug 18, 2013 23:41:13 GMT -8
I finally became a tourist last week and took a ride on the Dixiana at Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton.
I stayed at the Ben Lomond Hylton in the Santa Cruz Mountains at least once a year from 1982-91, often fantasizing what it would be like to live there. Anni had never been to those redwoods -- she hadn't even stopped in Santa Cruz throughout all her time living in San Francisco. After my 22 year absence, we both brought fresh eyes and ears to our four days and three nights. Some random thoughts:
- I could not count the number of guys of all ages proudly wearing clean San Francisco Giants caps, despite their World Champion team's current woes.
- Money has come to the little town of Ben Lomond. The poor still exist while the middle class seems barely visible. The Hylton is now a Comfort Inn, where room prices have more than tripled, unadjusted for inflation. The two local dinner restaurants are pricey and absolutely freaking wonderful. Mazeratis zoom by on Highway 9, only nine miles from the city of Santa Cruz.
- The 1989 earthquake wrecked Santa Cruz' shopping district, but the city's hippy spirit still shines at stores like Streetlight Records, nearly the equal of Amoeba in Hollywood.
- If I lived up there, I would have to subscribe to the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News, both of them viable and reliable newspapers but inadequate in many ways, as I learned when I got home and read Friday's Los Angeles Times. The New York Times is unavailable in the mountains, unless you're driving to Ben Lomond from Saratoga or Scotts Valley. No Starbucks.
- While in our cabin, we became totally hooked on the Santa Cruz cable public access channel.
Feel free to use this thread to post your own out of town meanderings, photos and links.
